No deal on new speaker, no quorum, says Iraq parliament's acting speaker

The acting speaker of Iraq's newly elected parliament said no agreement had been reached on naming a new speaker and that the parliament now had no quorum, Reuters reported.

Lawmakers had taken a recess to discuss candidates for a speaker, who has traditionally been Sunni Muslim, as well as two deputies who are Shi'ite and Kurdish. Parliament convened with 255 deputies out of 328, but only 75 returned after the recess.

"No agreement has been made on the speaker," acting speaker Mehdi al-Hafidh told lawmakers. "We have a lack of quorum and lack of agreement on the names."